Physics and Society presents here articles based on two of the
five talks given at an invited session sponsored by the Forum on
Physics and Society at the March 1992 APS meeting in Indianapolis.
The session was chaired by Ruth Howes, Past Chair of the Forum.

Los Alamos National Laboratory and Technology Transfer

Terry D. Bearce

From its beginnings in 1943, Los Alamos National Laboratory
(LANL) has traditionally used science and technology to find creative
but practical solutions to complex problems. LANL is operated by the
University of California (UC), under contract to the Department of
Energy (DOE). We are a government owned, contractor operated
facility, and a federally-funded research and development center. At
LANL, our mission is to apply science and engineering capabilities to
problems of national security. Recently our mission has been
broadened to include technology transfer to ensure that our scientific
and technical solutions are available to the marketplace.

We are, in staff and technical capabilities, one of the
worldUs largest multidisciplinary, multiprogram labs. We conduct
extensive research in energy, nuclear safeguards and security,
biomedical science, conventional defense technologies, space science,
computational science, environmental protection and cleanup, materials
science, and other basic sciences. Since 1980, by a series of laws
and executive orders, the resources of the federal labs have been made
increasingly available to private industry via technology transfer
efforts. LANL uses a variety of technology-transfer methods including
lab visits, cooperative research, licensing, contract research, user
facility access, personnel exchanges, consulting, publications, and
workshops, seminars and briefings. We also use unique approaches,
such as our negotiating teams, to ensure that transfer of our
developed technology takes place in an open and competitive manner. I
will discuss the overall process and some of the mechanisms that we
use at LANL to transfer lab-developed technology.

Recently our mission has been broadened
to include technology transfer
to ensure that our scientific and technical solutions
are available to the marketplace.

Authority. In order to ensure the full use of the lab's R&D
results and capabilities, technology transfer at Los Alamos is a
mission area covered under the prime contract between UC and DOE.
Technology transfer as a lab mission is an implementation of the
National Competitiveness Technology Transfer Act of 1989, and is
consistent with the policy, principles, and purposes of the
Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980, and of Chapter 38
of the Patent Laws, Section 152 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954,
Section 9 of the Federal Non-Nuclear Act of 1974, and Executive Order
12591 of 10 April 1987. LANL conducts technology-transfer activities
with the clear intent of providing benefit from federal research to US
industrial competitiveness.

At LANL, technology transfer is focused in the Industrial
Partnership Center (IPC). The IPC is currently under development and
will have satellite centers to concentrate on specific
multidisciplinary research and development efforts that cross the
lab's organizational boundaries. The IPC will incorporate most of our
current outreach activities and will be the focal point for LANL
technology outreach and initial interaction with the commercial
sector. The Industrial Agreements Office (IAO) portion of the IPC
will conduct the business negotiations of technology transfer
agreements and provide technology transfer guidance, training, and
education to potential industrial or business partners as well as to
lab personnel regarding the business aspects of technology transfer.
The IAO group also provides the overall technology transfer business
and administrative support, and coordinates the legal, financial and
contracting functions attendant to technology transfer at LANL.

Identification of technology for transfer. Normally, the
process starts with identification of a technology that is ready for
transfer or that is determined to have potential commercial use. This
identification may come from the developers, line management, or
program management. Business and industry may also identify LANL
developed technology that has commercial or industrial potential.
Programmatic initiatives driven by DOE, or other federal research
activities at LANL, and internally driven research to support our
technology base are additional ways to identify technologies for
transfer. These same initiatives can be used to develop new
technology development that may have transfer potential.

LANL negotiating team. When a technology is identified as ready
for transfer, a negotiating team is established. This team is
composed of an individual from the IAO, the developers or inventors,
representatives from line management, a representative from LANL's
legal office and, representation from the lab's contracting and
financial offices. Primarily, this negotiating team selects the
company or companies that the technology is to be transferred to and
advises the legal and business negotiators on technical issues during
the negotiation process. Other federal agency funding sources can
supply input to the negotiating team through LANL and the
developers/inventors.

Public announcement. A public announcement of the technology
available for transfer is made in the Commerce Business Daily (CBD),
soliciting interest from the commercial sector. The CBD announcement
may be augmented by direct mailing to industries, businesses, and
companies engaged in the technology area. Potential CBD responders
are given a reasonable time to respond. Other public announcement
methods include, for example, the lab's participation in the R&D
100 Award system, trade publication articles, and news media articles.

Technical exchange. Responders to the public announcements
are requested to sign a proprietary information agreement, which may
be unilateral (proprietary information provided by one side only) or
bilateral. LANL can protect company proprietary information for up to
five years. Following this, we provide prospective industrial
partners additional technical details on the technology available for
transfer so that they can make an informed business decision as to
whether or not they want to continue the technology transfer process.
This technical exchange may take several forms, including seminars,
conferences, publications, telephone discussions, technical staff
member discussions, etc.

Technology development plans. Once the technical exchange is
well under way or near completion, a technology development plan is
developed. Under licensing activity, LANL requires that the
company/business submit a plan, variously called a marketing plan, a
business plan, or a development plan. LANL prepares a
solicitation-type package that includes evaluation criteria and type
of agreement anticipated, along with other terms and conditions
expected to be a part of the final negotiated document. This
information is based on previous discussions and the public
announcement. The interested parties are given an opportunity to
respond with their plan which details how the company plans to use,
develop, market, and support the technology. This is a fairly
extensive document, and is reviewed and evaluated by the negotiating
team to identify the company that we will initiate formal negotiations
with for the technology transfer. Whatever form the technology
development plan takes, it identifies the technical work to be
accomplished, and can identify the business aspects in significant
detail.

Technology transfer mechanisms. Once the company is
identified by the negotiating team, technology transfer mechanism
discussions and negotiations begin.

Some mechanisms for technology transfer

Technology transfer can be accomplished by the following mechanisms:

Technical visits. In a general sense, technical visits,
publications, and workshops/seminars/briefings are informal transfer
mechanisms, although they may be part of a formal agreement.

Personnel exchanges are conducted as part of a formal
agreement such as cooperative research agreements and may be
unilateral or bilateral.

User facilities are designated by DOE and are established at
LANL to ensure widespread participation by the scientific community in
specific areas of research. User facilities are also accessible to
commercial and industrial users through agreement with DOE. The
contractual agreement in this case is between DOE and the company.

Contract research is based on an agreement with the company
and DOE for the company to completely fund the technology development.
This type of research must meet several criteria, including
non-competition with industry and non-interference with other research
activity at LANL. This contractual agreement is also between DOE and
the company.

Consulting provides access to key lab technical individuals,
and can be part of a licensing or cooperative research activity.
Consulting agreements are a LANL line management approval function.

Licensing can occur as the result of technology developments
from other technology transfer mechanisms or can occur based on a LANL
developed technology which is mature enough to have commercial
viability without further lab development activity. The full range of
licensing activity is undertaken at LANL and is a negotiated process
conducted by the IAO, with support from the negotiation team. The
actual licensing agreement is a contractual agreement between the
University of California and the involved company.

Cooperative research is accomplished under a negotiated
process that includes initial DOE approval of the work to be
conducted, a negotiated contractual agreement between LANL and the
commercial entity; and overall approval by DOE.

Technology transfer issues, such as conflict of interest, US
preference, and small business consideration, are specifically
addressed by detailed University of California, DOE, and LANL policies
and procedures, and are covered in the contract between the University
of California and DOE. National Security issues are specifically
covered under appropriate security regulations.

LANL conducts technology transfer activities with the clear
intent of providing benefit from federal research to US industrial
competitiveness. In the interest of enhancing US industrial
competitiveness, LANL, in its licensing and assignments of
intellectual property, gives preference to domestic business and
industry so as to enhance US economic and technological benefits.

The author is with the Industrial Agreements Office at LANL armd@physics.wm.edu